Emily's+thoughts

I’ve been thinking about the EDCI 260 redesign and here are my thoughts…

Building on what Staci has laid out, I’d like to see the course structured around a few bigger assignments and make it more of a problem-based learning course. In an attempt to make it as authentic as possible, we could have the whole course set up around the idea that students are part of a technology committee/pod/team (terminology may vary depending on grade level) within their school and the assignments that they do are what they are being asked to do as part of that committee and what they would do themselves as a teacher interested in technology.

So, we could divide the class into small groups (4ish) based on grade level and that would be their committee/team/pod they’d work with over the course of the semester (though everything won’t be groupwork of course).

The course could start with the principal of the school asking the committee (perhaps give them a fake email message from the principal) to create a newsletter for parents and/or students about technology and education. It could be a “Welcome to the New Year from the Technology Committee” type of newsletter. The committee would have to brainstorm ideas to include and get approval before moving forward. We could specify general topics or specific things that they must address (e.g., media literacy, plagiarism) or leave it completely open to them. Once they get approval, each person would have to write an article on one of the identified topics. They would have to peer review each other’s work and then pull it all together into one newsletter that would incorporate all of their articles and look professional. There would be individual accountability based on the articles, but some portion of their grade could be based on the final product (mainly on the format, layout, design of the document, overall quality) with everyone receiving the same score for that portion of it.
 * PROJECT #1 - Newsletter**

Building on that, the next project could involve the principal asking them (and presumably all other committees in the school) to create a committee website. Again, each student would be individually responsible for creating their own webpage with their resume and other relevant professional information. The whole team would also create a technology committee webpage that linked to each of their professional pages, but also included relevant and interesting information related to technology and education. So they’d be forced to locate some good resources and pull the information together in a meaningful way.
 * PROJECT #2 - Website**

The next project could be the principal passing along an RFP for a grant related to emerging technologies that he wants the school to go for…and since they’re the technology committee, they will be responsible for writing the grant proposal. The more authentic we could make the RFP (perhaps even finding a real one), the better. Obviously, this one is very similar to what we already have in the course, but if we change the focus to emerging technologies, then it incorporates much of what Staci was adding with the podcasts, wikis, blogs, RSS, virtual reality, etc. into the course). As they do currently, they’d have to research technologies and make a strong case for why the technology is needed and how it will enhance learning in the school. The would have to do an Excel spreadsheet with the budget and present their proposal as a PowerPoint presentation to the School Board Committee. It would be great if we could get an actual committee of folks together to watch these presentations during a class session (by folks, I mean education and other faculty/staff who might be interested…giving them a more authentic audience may lead to greater motivation and better quality work). This one could be done individually (each person researches their own idea to present to the committee and then they decide which one of their proposals they’ll submit to the school board) or as a group assignment (though I think I’d lean toward an individual assignment).
 * PROJECT #3 – Grant proposal**

This project would focus on how to find and evaluate online lesson plans. We could have them develop a workshop for other teachers about how to find lesson plans online, and more importantly, how to evaluate those lesson plans. This could emphasize inquiry-based methodologies which would lead in nicely to their development of a WebQuest as their final project. The workshop could be for teachers at their own school/district or for a conference like the ICE conference. We could even give them an accepted conference proposal for the ICE conference (title and description) and let them develop the workshop from there…or we could just have them develop a somewhat extensive proposal for an ICE-like conference for a session on this topic (it would have to be longer than the real ICE conf. proposal to allow them to fully explain their ideas. We could require a concept map as part of the planning process to get them exposure to Inspiration. We could also have them use a wiki to develop the session or proposal.
 * PROJECT #4 – Workshop on online lesson plans**

The final project would be pretty much the same as the current WebQuest project with QuestGarden. We could give them the context that the principal has asked everyone in the tech committee to develop a WebQuest to showcase the tool to teachers in the school (they would have to present them at the end of the semester). We could encourage (or require) them to share ideas with each other (in class or in an online discussion), but each student would have to create their own.
 * PROJECT #5 – WebQuest**

Staci had also provided 3 rich cases to use for discussion…they addressed plagiarism, Internet security, and copyright. I think we could use or slightly rework those ideas and have 3 online discussions over the course of the semester on those topics. We could use the online discussions as the “teachers’ lounge”…the opening to the discussions could be someone coming in and talking about those scenarios and then the students would discuss.
 * TEACHERS' LOUNGE DISCUSSIONS**

The 3 main themes I see in the course are a focus on professional productivity, technology integration, and use of technology with students. I think we hit all of these and could structure the course around those themes if that makes sense…the 3 cases fit those topics rather nicely. I think we hit all of the standards…and it follows pretty closely with the topics Staci listed in the revised weekly schedule (posted in the wiki).